In use, integrated circuits (ICs) generally require electrical connections to a substrate to form a package providing electrical connections to additional electronic devices. In general, in a ball grid array (BGA), an approximately square package substrate is provided with solder balls for electrical connection to IC terminals or bonding pads. The package substrate may be composed of multiple layers of semiconductor, mask, and conductive materials depending upon the complexity of the electrical connections to be made. In practice, the more layers, the higher the manufacturing effort and expense.
IC dice may be packaged alone, but frequently an IC die is included on a package substrate along with one or more discrete passive components such as resistors, capacitors, and so forth. Including discrete passive components in an IC package typically adds significant development and manufacturing costs and design complexity to the packaging endeavor. This complexity is engendered by the need for engineering changes to the package to accommodate the interconnection of the components selected for a particular application. Generally, expenses and complexity are also increased by the necessity of using multiple layer substrates in order to make electrical connections among the various discrete component terminals, IC terminals, and ball sites of the substrate.
Methods and devices providing the capability of including discrete passive components in an IC chip scale package with reduced cost and a reduced need for engineering changes to the package would be desirable in the arts.